Actually, Islamic concern over Mohammed's portrait in caricatures, cartoons or otherwise...is a personality cult, in other words: idolatory...supposedly forbidden in Islam...but there's always a rationalization... Bruce
<http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/13825286.htm> http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/13825286.htm Philadelphia Inquirer about how there is a picture of the prophet on the walls of the Supreme Court and how CAIR years ago tried (unsuccessfully) to get it removed. Posted on Thu, Feb. 09, 2006 <http://www.philly.com/images/common/spacer.gif> <http://www.philly.com/images/common/spacer.gif> Muhammad's image is far from a rarity He is portrayed in Western and Islamic art. Not all Muslims say it's wrong. By Andrew Maykuth Inquirer Staff Writer When the U.S. Supreme Court convenes in Washington, the justices sit in their grand courtroom beneath a carved marble frieze depicting 18 great lawgivers from the ages. On the south wall are the ancients - Confucius, Octavian, and Moses holding the Ten Commandments. And on the north wall, along with Justice John Marshall and Napoleon Bonaparte, standing between Charlemagne and Justinian, is Muhammad, cradling a sword and a copy of the Holy Koran. In the furor caused by the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, many stories have circulated about Islam's prohibitions about artistic depictions of the prophet, or any human figures. But Muhammad's image is portrayed far more widely than many believe, and not just in the West, in the highest court in America, where his likeness was chiseled in stone about 70 years ago. In Iran, images of Muhammad are widely circulated among the predominantly Shiite population. The 1994 book Arab Comic Strips shows a modern cartoon image of an infant Muhammad in the arms of his nurse, though his face is obscured in a brilliant halo. In the 15 centuries since Muhammad lived, Islamic artists have portrayed the prophet heroically in paintings now on display in such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Nor does there appear to be any uniform prohibition against portraying the human figure in Islam. "Right from the beginning of Islamic history, and in a number of periods since, paintings of figures on walls and in art have been practiced in Islam," said Renata Holod, curator of the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Islamic art collection. Conservative strains of the faith, such as the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia, maintain that Islamic law strictly prohibits any portraiture because only God can create human images. The Taliban in Afghanistan took this belief to an extreme when it systematically defaced figurative artwork, including ancient images of Buddha. But scholars say no clear doctrine defines Islam. Like believers of other global faiths, such as Christianity, the world's 1.3 billion Muslims hold a variety of beliefs about religious imagery. Experts say human figures have appeared frequently in Islamic art through the ages, particularly in Persia and Turkey. "Although there is a widespread misconception to the contrary, there are in fact a great many depictions of human beings in Islamic art, produced by Muslim artists for pious Muslim patrons," Andras J. Riedlmayer, an Islamic scholar at Harvard University's Fine Arts Library, wrote in an Internet posting this week. The historic portraits of Muhammad have caused a fuss on the Internet, where several commentators have posted collections from the Islamic world and the West that portray him. One San Francisco Bay Area site, zombietime.com, posted portraits with the explanation that images of Muhammad were "nothing new." The site's author contends that the Danish cartoons have created such an uproar only because no other images of the prophet "have ever been so widely publicized." But art historians and scholars say there is a dramatic distinction between the respectful way that the prophet has been portrayed in Islamic art and the intentionally provocative depictions in the Danish cartoons, which have triggered protests across the world. "The real problem with the Danish cartoons, of course, is not just that they purported to be portraits of the prophet, but that they were openly and deliberately meant to be insulting - while most of the images that have passed without causing similar uproar were not produced with an intent to mock or offend," Harvard's Riedlmayer wrote. But even the respectful images have proven sensitive. Nine years ago, the Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded that the Supreme Court remove the image of Muhammad from the frieze. "While appreciating the fact that Muhammad was included in the court's pantheon of 18 prominent lawgivers of history, CAIR noted that Islam discouraged its followers from portraying any prophet in paintings, sculptures or other artistic representations," the organization said in a published history. CAIR also objected that the prophet was shown with a sword, "reinforcing long-held stereotypes of Muslims as intolerant conquerors." Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist rejected the request to sandblast Muhammad, saying the artwork "was intended only to recognize him, among many other lawgivers, as an important figure in the history of law; it is not intended as a form of idol worship." The court later added a footnote to a pamphlet describing the frieze, calling it a "well-intentioned attempt by the sculptor to honor Muhammad." _____ Contact staff writer Andrew Maykuth at 215-854-2947 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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